Episode 6: Return of the Journal

ok, book time, firstly,

• The Death of Free Speech: How Our Broken National Dialogue Has Killed the Truth and Divided America by John Ziegler (236 pages) John Ziegler already is one of the awesome hosts on KFI AM 640, 7 - 10 PM, Monday through Friday, and he's talked a fair amount about this book for a while, so I'd been looking forward to reading it. I'm definitly not disappointed.
  Generally a Libertarian point of view, Ziegler looks at how free speech, saying what you want to say, is in many cases becoming socially unacceptable and the effects that this is having and will have. Its really disturbing, to me, to consider all the wyas in which things are considered unacceptable....the idea that potential offensiveness can get someone in trouble even if the truth is on their side....like the trouble the word niggardly has caused, for example.
  More troublesome is how the gov't is beginning to get more and more involved in the matters of free speech and just what is acceptable and what isn't. There is a real danger to free speech generally, and recent things like the Muhammad cartoons have brought even more attention to that, and given that situation, this book becomes even more relevant and even more worthy of reading.
  
• >Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocracy by Pete Schweizer (219 pages) Now, this is a book that I started reading expecting it to be a heavily biased viewpoint, but I thought it would just be interesting to read still. given that, I was surprised and very impressed with the attitude that Schweizer took, in that simply argueing that the left are hypocrites isn't the best of arguements because hypocrites exist across the political spectrum. However, I thought it was very well done how he seperated out how, when people on the right are hypocrticial, they do so in a way that harms themselves, such as Rush with his medication, and aruging that when hypocracy happens on the left, its to the person's benefit. That is to say....when the right deviate from how they say to live morally, they're hurt, but when the left deviates from how they say to live, they do significantly better, calling into question the ideals that they try to push on others as far as things like taxes, investing, education, affirmative action, and the environment go. The book looks at a handful of prominant people on the left, from politicans like the Clintons, Nancy Palosi, and Ted Kennedy, to prominant voices like Michael Moore, Al Franken, and Noam Chomsky, and looks at how they've ignored their own views and benefitted greatly by doing so.
  Still biased to some extent, but thats to be expected in something like this. There still is, though, a great deal of info that is extremely insightful.

Now...Jennie has said these will be better read here...so, i put them here...give them a try people
http://kevan.org/johari?name=Lowbacca

http://kevan.org/nohari?name=Lowbacca

School stuff - hitting that run-down point atm, but I think that was very much tied to other stuff going on, not just school. Tests are going alright this time, and hopfully they will be going back on the up-and-up soon. I'm working hard to reestablish my commitment to school, and it seems to be going alright thus far. Its a new start for that all. Plus I'm understanding things and just...feel a tad more alive with my classes.

Anyway, the other big thing of now is Chris leaving for the Navy tomorrow....and so, i present the following:

The Vegas Odds On Chris's Service in the Navy

• 1:5 Accidentally fired out of a torpedo tube
  
• 1:8 Court marshalled for leading mutiny after 6 days of sub sandwiches in gally
  
• 1:13 Disappears on shore leave, sold into slave trade. In San Diego.
  
• 1:20 Critically fails saving throw while saluting superior officer and is knocked unconcious for three weeks
  
• 1:42 Accidentally fires a nuke into Eastern Europe. No one really cares.
  
• 1:54 Becomes king after France surrenders to him
  
• 1:69 Becomes a queen after surrenders to getting frenched by bunkmate
  
• 1:97 Saves submarine crew after accident damages steering, limiting movement to left or right, but not up, down, or back in time
  
• 1:412 A freak nuclear accident melds his glasses and face, giving him high powered and x-ray vision. However, he wastes it staring into girls' showers.
  
• 1:3720 In critical battle in Persian Gulf, Chris successfully navigates a mine field before entire sub is swallowed by a giant slug.

I'll try to talk about school and world events in next post...but first, to get some reviews taken care of.

• White Death by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos (419 pages) Going back months to when I read this one, I unfortunitly don't remember anything terribly specific. Unlike I believe all the books I've talked about prior, this one focuses not on Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino, his usual heroes, but another pair in NUMA, Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala. One of the impressive things, though, is that they are written, still, as two seperate characters, its not just Dirk and Al with new names. Theres a new dynamic and everything. Of course, you still have the crazy plot to destroy some part of the earth and NUMA coming to the rescue, but it just wouldn't be a Cussler book without it.
  
• Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler (485 pages) The Odyssey has always intrigued me, so the stuff this book did was just amazing. Completely rewriting the historical context of the Odyssey as told by Home and relocating it from Greece to Northern Europe and the Celts replacing the Greeks and Trojans is yet another one of these cases where I can't help but wonder just how much is fact, how much is theory, and how much is fiction. Cussler always manages to mix these elements together in a perfect blend that just astounds me. The number of times where it looks like all is lost in this book is higher than probably just about any book I've read, and what makes it so much more interesting is taht beyond Dirk and Al, the usual pai in Cussler's books, this one throws Dirk's children Dirk and Summer into the mix, leading to going back and forth from one pair to the other as a myriad of different plot threads are slowly woven together into one large central story. Its tough to say, but I think this one might well be my favourite of Cussler's I've read thus far.